Udny Community Turbine

Investing in sports facilities and helping local school-leavers prepare for work are among the good causes set to benefit from returns generated by the Udny Community Turbine.

The project is the first wholly community-owned, built, financed and operated wind turbine on the Scottish mainland.

Made up of two villages in Aberdeenshire – Udny Green and Pitmedden – the community has a population of 2,500 and householders gave their backing for the turbine in a ballot held in 2008 following an extensive consultation programme.

The Enercon 800kW turbine is expected to produce at least 2.05GWh per year and the £1.45m project is forecast to move into profit in its second year of operation, eventually generating income of upwards of £100,000 a year. Profits will be invested into local initiatives decided on by the local community.

Garth Entwistle, chairman of the company established to develop the turbine, first became aware of SmartestEnergy during a presentation at a Community Energy Scotland event.

“We liked what we heard and when it came to choosing a power purchase company we reviewed various other companies but for us SmartestEnergy was a clear winner.

“We were impressed with the people from the company we were dealing with and also the clarity of the information we were provided with on both pricing structure and terms and conditions.”

The fact that SmartestEnergy both provided a personal level of service and had the backing of a major global company in the Marubeni Corporation was also attractive.

“We hadn’t realised at first that SmartestEnergy was part of a much larger organisation but as a small community group that certainly gave us added comfort.”